1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a front end processor system, and more particularly to a multistage front end processor system in which a plurality of front end processors, each with its own function, are connected serially.
2. Related Art
The operating system of a computer has a front end processor system which performs pre-processing on data received from an input device, such as a keyboard, before sending the data to an application program.
The user has an option of specifying the function of a pre-processing program to be used as a front end processor system. Conventionally, because only one program may be specified as a front end processor system for use with an application program, a frequently-used program, such as a kana-kanji conversion program, is usually assigned as a front end processor system. As its name implies, the kana-kanji conversion program converts Roman character strings or kana character strings, entered from a keyboard, into Japanese character strings composed of kanji and kana characters.
Recently, a computer accepts not only coded characters from the keyboard but also many other types of data. For example, as hand-written characters are recognized more precisely, the computer now accepts penned characters written with a pen for entering hand-written characters. This requires that a hand-written character recognition program, specifically designed for recognizing hand-written characters, be assigned as a front end processor system. Another example is a voice recognition program. As voices are recognized more precisely, the computer now accepts human voices directly. This requires that a voice recognition program, specifically designed for recognizing human voice data and converting it into character code symbols, be assigned as a front end processor system.
On the other hand, an attempt is being made to implement a word processor which executes a Japanese-English machine translation program immediately after the execution of a kana-kanji conversion program, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. JP-A-Hei 6-236399. To implement this type of function as a front end processor system, a program which performs kana-kanji conversion and then translates resulting data from Japanese to English must be assigned as a front end processor system instead of a single-function program such as a kana-kanji conversion program and a Japanese-English machine translation program.